Children's Book Illustration-The Potter

Coteau Books 1998


Written by Jacolyn Caton








The Potter was my first children's book. It's a fantasy about an ancient potter and his magical pots. Watercolour and Prismacolour pencil on paper.

Flash Animation-NFB

Wildlife

National Film Board of Canada 2008

Directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanada Forbis

I created this line animation in Flash for my good pals, Wendy and Amanda. The girls are now busy with the final painting of these frames. I can't wait to see the finished film!

Children's Book Illustration-Belle's Journey

Orca Book Publishers 1991

Written by Marilyn Reynolds

Watercolour and Prismacolour pencil on paper. I used a Japanese electric eraser to create the snow effect. The pencil crayon work is very time consuming so it was scary using the eraser on these images but the effect works very nicely. This book is now considered a Canadian classic with over 40,000 copies sold so far. Editions have also been published in the US, Japan and Germany.

Character Animation-Walk Cycle

Whenever I have a break between paid assignments I like to hone my skills and explore new styles and techniques. Here is a walk cycle I created recently in Flash. I wanted to find out long it might take to draw a sequence of animation in this style then scan it, trace it and colour it in Flash. This particular sequence of 20 drawings took about a week from concept to completion.

One day, I'd like to make a little film based on this character. The story might be a "Chaplinesque" morality play for our modern economic woes. Of course, I'll have to dig up some funding to make that happen. We'll see!

Children's Book Illustration-Interior B&Ws

Daughter of Light

Orca Books 2001
Written by Martha Attema

B&W Pencil drawings

4 examples of interior illustrations for young reader fiction. I've illustrated 6 of these books including the covers. Generally, these interior "sketches" take about 4-5 hours including research. Every book, especially historical books with realistic figures requires quite a bit of digging around for good reference material. Everything including, clothing, landscapes and architecture needs to be acurate and I'm always on the lookout for interesting details to include in these images.

Children's Book Illustration-A Dog for a Friend

Orca Books 1992

Written by Marily Reynolds






Watercolour and prisma colour pencil on paper

Flash Animation-30 second commercial for GM

Acme Filmworks 2008

Directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis

This was an intense job! I worked with Wendy and Amanda who are based in Calgary. We were sending files back and forth furiously for 6 very long 18-20 hour days but we got it done in time. For some reason the helix object at the end of this sequence was very tricky to animate but the folks at GM were happy in the end. Whew!

Water Colour Illustration-The Good Companion

Orca Books 1994

Written by Joan Skogan

Orca asked me to illustrate this book based on the success of my animated film, From Flores. The book is written for children but the themes are mature and sophisticated. The writing is beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed working on it.

Flash Animation-NFB

Flash Animation created for Wild Life 2008

National Film Board of Canada

Directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis

Children's Book Illustration-The New Land

Orca Books 1993

Written by Marilyn Reynolds






I really enjoyed doing the research for this project. Many of the illustrations in this book refer to old photographs of the early immigration experience in North America. The bottom image pays homage to a picture called The Steerage taken by Alfred Stiegletz.